How to Help Someone Get a Green Card: I-130, Affidavit, Interview

To sponsor a family member for a green card, you file Form I-130 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to prove the family relationship, sign a legally binding Affidavit of Support agreeing to back your relative financially, and then guide them through either adjustment of status in the United States or consular processing abroad, ending with a medical exam and an interview. How long that takes depends on your immigration status and which family category your relative falls into, so the first thing to sort out is who you’re allowed to sponsor at all.

Who You Can Sponsor

Your authority depends on whether you’re a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident, and the gap is significant. Citizens can petition for spouses, unmarried children under 21, parents, adult sons and daughters (married or unmarried), and siblings. Permanent residents can only petition for a spouse and unmarried children of any age. If you’re a green card holder hoping to bring a parent or sibling, the practical answer is to naturalize first and then file as a citizen.¹

Immediate Relatives Move Fastest

Federal law treats the spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of adult U.S. citizens as “immediate relatives.”² There is no annual cap on visas for this group. Once the petition is approved, a visa number is available and the relative can move to the next step right away.

Preference Categories Come With Waits

Every other qualifying relative falls into one of four numerically limited preference categories:³

F1: unmarried sons and daughters (21 and older) of U.S. citizens, about 23,400 visas per year.
F2A and F2B: spouses and minor children of permanent residents (F2A) and unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents (F2B), sharing roughly 114,200 visas per year with at least 77 percent going to F2A.
F3: married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, about 23,400 visas per year.
F4: brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens, about 65,000 visas per year.

Those caps produce backlogs measured in years, and in the F4 sibling category the wait can exceed 15 years depending on the beneficiary’s country of birth.

Priority Dates and the Visa Bulletin

If your relative is in a preference category, the day USCIS receives your I-130 becomes their priority date, and that date is their place in line. Nothing else happens on the visa side until a number becomes available for their category and country.

The Department of State publishes the Visa Bulletin every month, with two charts: “Final Action Dates” and “Dates for Filing Applications.”⁴ When your priority date is earlier than the date listed for your category, a visa is available. A “C” means the category is current and everyone in it can proceed. For applicants inside the U.S., USCIS posts each month which chart to use. Check regularly; the bulletin is how you know when your relative can finally move forward.

The Affidavit of Support: Your Financial Commitment

Before your relative can receive a green card, you must sign Form I-864, the Affidavit of Support. This is a contract between you and the federal government promising that your relative will not have to rely on public benefits.⁵ It is legally enforceable, and most sponsors underestimate how long it lasts.

The Income Requirement

Your household income must reach at least 125 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines for your household size.⁶ For 2026 in the 48 contiguous states, that means $27,050 for a household of two, and more with each additional person; Alaska and Hawaii use higher figures.⁷ You’ll submit recent federal tax returns, W-2s, and proof of current employment.

If your income falls short, you have options. A joint sponsor, meaning any U.S. citizen or permanent resident at least 18 years old and living in the United States, can file a separate I-864 accepting the same responsibility. They don’t need to be related to you or your relative. You can also count the income of qualifying household members who sign Form I-864A. If you’re using assets, the net value generally must be at least five times the shortfall between your income and the 125 percent threshold.

How Long You’re on the Hook

The commitment doesn’t end at approval. It continues until your relative becomes a U.S. citizen, earns 40 qualifying quarters of work under Social Security (about ten years of employment), or dies. If they receive certain means-tested public benefits during that period, the agency that paid can sue you for reimbursement. Divorce doesn’t end the obligation either, which routinely surprises people sponsoring a spouse.

Filing Form I-130 and Its Documents

The petition itself is Form I-130, the Petition for Alien Relative.⁸ You can file it online through the USCIS portal or by mailing a paper version to the designated lockbox. The filing fee is adjusted periodically, so check the current amount at uscis.gov before you file. USCIS accepts credit cards, money orders, and checks drawn on a U.S. financial institution.

After the filing is accepted you’ll get Form I-797, the Notice of Action, with a receipt number that lets you track the case. Both petitioner and beneficiary need to provide full legal names, dates of birth, five years of residential history, and employment details.

Proving You Qualify to Sponsor

You’ll need to prove citizenship or permanent residence with a U.S. passport, a U.S. birth certificate, a naturalization certificate, or a copy of both sides of your green card.

Proving the Family Relationship

Official records establish the tie. Marriage certificates document a spousal relationship. Birth certificates or adoption decrees prove parent-child relationships. If either party has been married before, you’ll need divorce decrees or death certificates showing the prior marriage ended. When primary documents don’t exist, secondary evidence can fill in: school records, census records, and sworn statements from people with firsthand knowledge. Any document not in English needs a certified translation, and the translator must certify completeness, accuracy, and their competence to translate from the source language. Certified translations typically run $30 to $75 per page, with rare languages and rush jobs costing more.

Concurrent Filing Can Save Months

If your relative is already in the United States and a visa number is available, you can file the I-130 and the Form I-485 adjustment application at the same time. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens can always do this because there is no visa backlog. Preference-category relatives can only do it when a visa number is available at the moment of filing.⁹ Concurrent filing lets both forms move in parallel instead of one after the other.

Two Paths After the Petition Is Approved

Once the I-130 is approved and a visa number is available, your relative takes one of two routes depending on where they live.

Adjustment of Status Inside the U.S.

If your relative is already in the country, they file Form I-485 to adjust to permanent resident status. They must have been lawfully admitted or paroled in, be physically present in the U.S., and be admissible.¹⁰ Several problems can bar adjustment: falling out of lawful status, working without authorization, or entering without inspection. Immediate relatives of citizens receive more forgiving treatment on some of these bars.

Consular Processing Abroad

If your relative lives outside the U.S., USCIS forwards the approved petition to the National Visa Center, which collects fees and documents before scheduling an interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate.¹¹ Your relative completes Form DS-260 online, takes a medical exam with a panel physician in their country, and attends the interview. If approved, they receive an immigrant visa and a sealed packet to hand to the officer at the U.S. port of entry. After arrival and payment of the $235 USCIS Immigrant Fee, the green card comes in the mail.

Working and Traveling While the Case Is Pending

For relatives adjusting status inside the U.S., the gap between filing I-485 and getting the green card can stretch many months. During that period, filing the I-485 alone does not authorize work or travel.

Employment Authorization

Your relative can file Form I-765 for an Employment Authorization Document, either together with the I-485 or while it’s pending. The fee is $260 when filed alongside or after a pending I-485.¹² Once the EAD arrives, there are no restrictions on lawful employment. Your relative cannot legally start work until the card is in hand.

Advance Parole for Travel

Leaving the country while an I-485 is pending, without advance parole, is one of the surest ways to sink the case. USCIS treats unauthorized departure as abandonment of the pending application.¹³ To travel and return, your relative must first get advance parole by filing Form I-131, and even with the document a border officer makes the final call at reentry. When Forms I-765 and I-131 are filed together, USCIS may issue a combination card that acts as both.

The Medical Exam

Every green card applicant must clear a medical exam.¹⁴ Inside the U.S., a USCIS-designated civil surgeon performs it and records the results on Form I-693.¹⁵ Abroad, a panel physician near the embassy does it.

The exam covers physical and mental health, vaccination records, and testing for specific communicable diseases. Required vaccinations include measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, and others recommended by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.¹⁶ The civil surgeon can administer missing shots on the spot, which raises the bill. Fees vary by provider and typically run from $200 to $500. Health insurance rarely covers this.

The Interview

The last major step is an in-person interview. For adjustment cases it’s at a USCIS field office; for consular processing it’s at the embassy or consulate.

The officer’s task is to confirm the relationship and screen for fraud. Expect questions about how you met, where and how you live, financial ties, and family history. Marriage-based cases draw the closest scrutiny, and officers may interview each spouse separately. Bring originals of everything you submitted, plus:

Unexpired government-issued photo ID and a passport valid at least six months past the intended entry date.
Relationship evidence such as photographs, joint financial records, and correspondence.
A completed Form I-864 with IRS tax transcripts and W-2s.
Original marriage certificate, birth certificates, and any prior divorce or death certificates, with certified English translations.
The sealed Form I-693 medical envelope if not previously submitted.
For consular processing, police certificates from countries of current and prior residence for applicants over 16.

If the case is approved, your relative gets an immigrant visa stamp (consular) or an approval notice (adjustment). The physical card typically arrives by mail within a few weeks, so keep the address current with USCIS.¹⁷

Things That Can Still Block Approval

An approved petition and a willing sponsor are not always enough. Federal law lists grounds of inadmissibility that can block a green card even after everything else lines up. The main categories are health (communicable diseases of public health significance, missing vaccinations, substance abuse, certain physical or mental disorders with harmful behavior), criminal (convictions or admitted acts involving moral turpitude, controlled substance violations, aggregate sentences of five years or more, drug trafficking), immigration violations (prior removal orders, unlawful presence, fraud, smuggling), and public charge grounds.

The public charge assessment weighs age, health, family status, education, skills, and finances under a “totality of circumstances” standard, and nothing other than an insufficient Affidavit of Support can be the sole basis for a denial.¹⁸ Some inadmissibility grounds can be waived through Form I-601, but the standard is high (often “extreme hardship” to a qualifying U.S. citizen or permanent resident relative), and not every ground has a waiver at all.¹⁹ If your relative has any criminal history or prior immigration problems, talk to an immigration attorney before filing.

Conditional Green Cards for Newer Marriages

If your relative gets their green card through marriage and you’ve been married less than two years when they become a permanent resident, the card is conditional. It expires after two years instead of ten.²⁰

To convert it to a standard ten-year card, both spouses jointly file Form I-751 during the 90-day window before the second anniversary of the conditional residence.²¹ Miss the window and USCIS can terminate resident status automatically. If the marriage has ended by then, the conditional resident can request a waiver of the joint filing requirement, but the case becomes much harder. Put the deadline on a calendar the day the conditional card arrives.

What It Costs

The process involves several fees, and not all apply to every case:

Form I-130 filing fee, adjusted periodically; check uscis.gov/fees for the current amount. Online and paper filings may differ.
Form I-485 filing fee for adjustment of status, also periodically adjusted. Includes biometric services.
Form I-864 Affidavit of Support: no separate fee when submitted with the I-485 or as part of consular processing.
Form I-765 employment authorization: $260 when filed with or after a pending I-485.¹²
Form I-131 advance parole: may carry a reduced fee when filed with adjustment; check current schedules.
USCIS Immigrant Fee: $235 for consular processing cases, paid online before the card ships after arrival.
Medical exam: $200 to $500 or more depending on location and vaccinations. Rarely covered by health insurance.
Certified translations: roughly $30 to $75 per page.
Passport photos: about $10 to $20 per set.

You don’t have to hire a lawyer, but many families do, especially where there’s a prior immigration violation, criminal history, or a complicated family structure. Full case representation commonly runs $2,000 to $10,000 depending on complexity and location. Rules change and cases turn on facts, so a consultation before filing is worth the cost when anything about your situation looks unusual.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Family Preference Immigrants
2
Cornell Law Institute. 8 USC 1151(b)(2) – Immediate Relatives
3
US Code. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
4
U.S. Department of State. Visa Bulletin for December 2025
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1183a – Requirements for Sponsors Affidavit of Support
6
U.S. Department of State. I-864 Affidavit of Support FAQs
7
HHS ASPE. 2026 Poverty Guidelines – 48 Contiguous States
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-130 Petition for Alien Relative
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Concurrent Filing of Form I-485
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Eligibility Requirements
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Consular Processing
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Frequently Asked Questions on the USCIS Fee Rule
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Travel Documents
14
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Technical Instructions for Civil Surgeons
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 4 – Review of Medical Examination Documentation
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
17
U.S. Department of State. What to Bring to Your Immigrant Visa Interview
18
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Prospective Determination Based on the Totality of the Circumstances
19
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 5 – Extreme Hardship Considerations and Factors
20
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1186a – Conditional Permanent Resident Status for Certain Alien Spouses and Sons and Daughters
21
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Removing Conditions on Permanent Residence Based on Marriage